PSYC12H3 Chapter 1: Untitled document-7
Document Summary
One implicit understanding involved with survey methodology is that each of the questions is independent; the different questions do not necessarily take on the form of a conversation. Researchers rely on this convention, and the result is that one standard methodological technique used in survey research is to ask participants about the same issue in a number of items that vary slightly. Much of our own psychological experience occurs completely beyond our awareness! The problem for cultural psychologists is that the difficulties (psychological experiences) are multiplied many times over when trying to understand the minds of people from another culture. David funder emphasized, that psychological data are only clues, and clues are always ambiguous. One common approach for selecting cultures is to choose samples based on a theoretical variable that you are investigating. One good way to choose your samples, then, is to look for cultures that vary on a specific theoretical dimension of interest, such as collectivism.
